Broadband from the bell tower: the church that became an internet hub...
Fed up with inadequate broadband, an enterprising father and son installed a transmitter on St Andrew's church in Paull
"...Paull and his family live by a creek in the reclaimed marshland of Holderness, East Yorkshire, 10 miles south-east of Hull and six miles away from a main road. "No way are they going to dig a trench to lay fibre optic cable to our house, but they won't admit it," said Paull, as his dad, Simon, nodded enthusiastic agreement. "East Riding council have just given BT £14m to improve broadband provision in our area, but we understand we won't see any of that," said Simon, a moustachioed eccentric with bright eyes and big ideas.
Luckily, the Taylors predicted this at least a year ago and decided to take matters into their own hands. Fed up with waiting 20 minutes to download any email with an attachment, and cheesed off with not being able to stream the BBC's iPlayer, Paull and his dad came up with an idea.
They bought an off-the-shelf radio transmitter and receiver for about £80 and, along with a neighbour, persuaded St Andrew's, their local church in the village of Paull (where the young man got the unusual spelling of his name), to let them install the equipment on top of the bell tower.
After tapping into a nearby fibre optic cable, they were able to equip the church with a galloping internet connection. The church soon exploited this to turn their ad-hoc coffee shop into a cyber cafe. Suddenly 100 people were coming through the church doors each weekend, compared to perhaps 10 (on a good day) sitting through the Sunday sermon. "We have to find new ways to make ourselves relevant in this day and age if we want to stay open," said one church member..."
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/29/broadband-bell-tower-st-andrews-church-paull Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
